Thursday, August 5, 2010

Shanghai - day 02 (Expo)

The whole day 02 and 03 were reserved for the World Pavillion Expo 2010. For those who don't have any idea of what the Expo is all about, do click HERE.

When we were there, the summer season was just started and 21st June is the longest day for summer (I don't know, but my lecturer told me..hehe). This is the scenery i took from my room at level 13 and it was at 4.00 am! It looks like 7.30 am in Malaysia right? No wonder Subuh there is around 3.00 am. For us who never had experience of 4 season, we don't know about the time and we were just set the alarm at 6.00 am.I woke up because it was so cold and i wanted to increase the aircond temperature. Yet, i was so shocked to see there's dim light came from the window curtain and i check the table clock, my watch and mobile phone if i'm wrong! haha then we kelam-kabut do subuh pray... but still, their daily activity start at 6.00 am =)We reach the Expo at 9.00am and the crowd was crazy! We have to hold shoulder-to-shoulder so that no one left behind.We took a group photo before queuing up at the entrance gate for security check.Haha look! It was so noise and crowded but luckily we were the first batch on that day and we only have to queue for less than 1 hour for the security check...only 40 minutes if i'm not mistaken...We started with Malaysia Pavillion since it is very near to the entrance. I don't want to comment anything on the pavillion.But yeah, we enjoy the zapin performance. It brings me back when I was 8 or 9 years old, in primary school. Me and my classmate performed zapin for our co-curriculum night. But now, if you ask me to dance, i only remember to count the steps from 1 to 8, but not showing the steps :PSingapore and Rome Pavilion.Estonia and Turkey Pavilion.Croatia and Italy Pavilion.From my personal point of view, I would say Dutch Pavilion is the best of all. It is because they actually let the visitor experience the building, instead of just observe it. Most of the other pavillion designed in a 'wow factor' form, yet the experience inside the building has nothing to be proud of.For Dutch Pavilion, we were walking along the ramp as the main circulation, while there are series of small apartment cantilever out on the left and right side of ramp. They display their invented technology, culture, history and anything that can represent their country.For us as an architecture student, it is a great idea of how they dividing the dead load and life load. They arrange the cylinder column right underneath the ramp structure where the life load (people walk) will be while the cantilever small room is only carry the dead load (displayed things).

Furthermore, they don't use mechanical ventilation since it is an outdoor walking concept.On the ground level, they lay an artificial grass with lots of artificial sheep scatterred around that become a seating and not only kids but adults like it too!At the expo, we were became the local attraction. Maybe because we wear proper scarf not like the local muslim that just tie their scarf under their chin and expose their ears. We actually notice that since the first time we reach the expo. They were staring at us up and down, and follow us walking with their eyes until we gone. Seriously it was quite scary because we don't know what is the intention for them to do so.

Until there is one guy pull my hand and talking their mother tongue which we definitely don't understand at all and he shows us his camera...oh, there he is! haha he wants to take photograph with us la..we assume they rarely see muslim foreigner in a proper attire but casual. maybe la..

When that guy starting to take photo with us, again we were surprise to see there was a queue behind that guy waiting for their turn to photograph with us! haha macam artis pulak rasenye... what a competitive life they've gone through... they won't let others to be, or to get better than them. I believe, they just don't want to miss any chance...Here comes the UK Pavilion! Of course we don't want to miss a chance to explore the most popular pavillion, because of its fluffy facade from far. Those who choose to queue in the peak hours have to queue for not less than 4 hours! But for us, we decided to start queuing at 5.20 pm and manage to enter this pavilion at 6.00 pm! yes!It looks like a box with thousands of rods made of perspex that swing in a breeze.Inside the pavilion, they display thousands of seeds at one end of the perspex rod (photo: above-right). It also reflect the sunshine into the inner space. Taken from a reliable sources, British people loves to bring seeds back to their country and they will plant it in a large area , and sometimes it become a garden.Ok, that's about the Day-02..